Books and films
Books and films that help us understand collective action.
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The 1968 Florida Teachers' Strike
In early 1968, more than 27,000 teachers across Florida mailed their resignation letters, initiating the country's first statewide teachers' strike.
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The Art of Class War: Newspaper Cartoonists and the 1984-85 Miners' Strike
A new book sheds light on political cartoons from the bitter miners’ strike of the mid-1980s and includes around 130 cartoons. It is written by Nicholas Jones, who was the BBC’s industrial and senior political correspondent for over 20 years and has authored many books on UK politics and industrial relations.
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The Power of Unity: Labor Unions and the Fight for Workers’ Rights
In 1935, the landmark National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) was passed, greatly increasing the power of American workers. During and immediately after World War II, unions flourished, and income inequality fell to its lowest level since the Great Depression.
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The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America
In 1922, a young idealist named Charles Garland rejected a million-dollar inheritance and, in a world marked by extreme wealth inequality, open racism, and political repression, chose instead to invest in a future where radical ideas such as working-class power, free speech, and equality could flourish. Over the next two decades, the Garland Fund…
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The Rehabilitation of Tony Boyle: A Contextual History of the United Mine Workers of America
This book is an organizational history of the United Mine Workers of America and a record of the context of this history as it relates to the murder of Jock Yablonski in 1969. American coal miners were among the most exploited workers in the nation's history, subject to ferocious violence at the hands of employers and the state.
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They Called It the Butcher Shop: The Fleck Strike In Images
In 1978, in Huron Park, Ontario, the women of Fleck Manufacturing walked off of the job and into the history books. Fighting for better wages, safer working conditions, and union security, the strikers embarked on what would become a pivotal strike for both feminism and the labour movement.
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Those Who Travail and are Heavy Laden: Memoir of a Labor Lawyer
In a life laden with honors, Bill Gould has worked to lighten the burden of workers unjustly and illegally cut off from fully reaping the fruits of their labor.
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Threads of labour Tapestry of an ex-industrial community
Charting a collaborative art-based project using carpet-making skills and the industrial heritage of the region, the book investigates how a cleaved ex-industrial community used arts methodologies as a cohesion strategy. Drawing on images from the company’s archives, the book mines the history of Firths Carpets Limited, a firm that carpeted interiors…
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Transnational Working-Class Literatures Canons and Connections in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
This book addresses an urgent need for a study which brings together the national, transnational and international dimensions of working-class literatures.
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Trouble! at Coal Creek
This gripping graphic novel tells the story of the 1891 Coal Creek War—one of the most significant yet overlooked labor and abolitionist uprisings
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Union Organizing and Collective Bargaining at a Critical Moment: Opportunities for Renewal or Continued Decline
Since the 1950s, union membership and collective bargaining in the United States have declined. Union density, the percentage of the workforce belonging to unions, peaked at 34.8% in 1954 and fell steadily thereafter.
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U.S. V. Darby Lumber
The eight-hour day. The five-day work week.
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We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing Is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big
Eric Blanc shows that recent struggles have developed a new organizing model, worker-to-worker unionism, which builds scalable power by giving rank-and-filers an unprecedented degree of leadership. Through digital tools and ambitious campaigns, young worker leaders are turning the labor movement back into a movement—and they're winning.
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We Paved the Way: Black Women and the Charleston Hospital Workers' Campaign
In the spring of 1969, hundreds of workers, all Black and mostly female, went on strike at Medical College Hospital and Charleston County Hospital to protest racial discrimination, low wages, and the marginalization of their dignity. The movement began with an incident of wrongful termination in 1967 involving five Black women at Medical College Hospital…
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Who’s Got the Power: The Resurgence of American Unions
An essential and timely guide to the changing landscape of the labor movement, from a veteran labor organizer “The best overview of the recent labor upsurge we have yet seen. T
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"Work, give us work": Jacob Coxey and the Industrial Army Movement of 1894
In late March 1894, other "armies" of the unemployed mobilized on the Pacific Coast and in the Rocky Mountain states to begin their own pilgrimages to the nation's capital. Confronted with distances farther than those covered by European crusaders to the Holy Land, western marchers had to improvise.
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20 ans d’Unia / 20 years of Unia: the strong voice of workers
Since its creation, Unia has become the largest trade union in Switzerland. Unia successfully fights for social justice, strong collective bargaining agreements, wage protection, and equality.
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Aan deze kant van de rivier / On this side of the river
It's only a small plot of land, triangular in shape and bordered by the Adda River. But in 1877, it represented the future for Cristoforo Crespi.
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A bas Biribi / Down with Biribi: Albert Aernoult and Émile Rousset, the "Dreyfus" affair of the workers 1909 - 1912
In pre-1914 France, the Aernoult-Rousset affair revealed the hellish conditions of the disciplinary battalions in Africa, where young, condemned workers suffered harassment, torture, and sometimes death. After Albert Aernoult died from beatings, soldier Émile Rousset dared to break the code of silence, but it was he who was condemned.
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Algériens au travail, une histoire (post)coloniale / Algerians at work: a (post)colonial story: An investigation into immigrant workers in the automotive industry during the "Thirty Glorious Years" in France
Through the case of immigrant workers from Algeria, the aim here is to trace the history, to date little documented, of the (post)colonial condition in factory territory in the France of the "Thirty Glorious Years". Based on research conducted at the iconic Renault factory in Billancourt, this book shows how these colonial migrants came to embody the…
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Bosse, tais-toi et crève / Work, shut up, and die: the fight of the century for our pensions
We are being lied to, again and again. The Arizona government is trying to pass off the dismantling of our pensions as inevitable.
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Companeros De La Emigracion / Companions of emigration! Emigrated workers ! : Immigration and workers' struggles in French-speaking Switzerland (1968-1974).
The book "Compañeros de la emigración! Lavoratori emigrati!
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Défendre les travailleur·euses en gérant les entreprises ? / Defending workers by managing companies? When unions and cooperatives meet
While the history of trade unionism and that of production cooperatives have been extensively explored, the history of their encounter remains to be written. This book explores the practices and perceptions that arise at their intersection, examining both the emergence of emancipatory possibilities and the difficulties encountered.
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De Onzichtbaren. Opvattingen en emoties van praktisch geschoolde arbeiders / The Invisibles: Perceptions and Emotions of Practically Skilled Workers
Based on 73 conversations, this book paints a picture of the Dutch working class under pressure.
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De vergeten staking van Amsterdam / The Forgotten Amsterdam Strike
The 1950s are known as the years of collective satisfaction, guided wage policies, and the reconstruction of the country. Yet, that's not the whole story.
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Dire "nous" après l'esclavage / People of Guadeloupe - Saying "we" after slavery
Guadeloupe belongs to us, Guadeloupe does not belong to them, we will not let them do what they want in our country." During the strike that paralyzed Guadeloupe in early 2009, this anthem served as a rallying cry for the collective against "profiteering" (LKP).
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Een mens is geen machine – de Nederlandse Arbeidsinspectie 1890-2025 / A human is not a machine | The Dutch Labour Inspectorate, 1890-2025
In 2025, the Labour Inspectorate will celebrate its 135th anniversary. Timon de Groot describes how this institution attempted to create a fair, healthy, and safe working environment in the Netherlands, while facing obstacles.
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Een stakingswet voor deze eeuw / A Strike Law for This Century: Chronicle of the Collective Action Right After the Enerco and Amsta Judgments
The right to strike is not enshrined in Dutch law, but in the European Social Charter (ESC). About ten years ago, in the Enerco and Amsta judgments, the Supreme Court provided a decision-making model based on that treaty for assessing the (un)lawfulness of collective action.This book provides a detailed description of how judges have assessed strikes…
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En guerre et en grève. Enquêtes dans les cités minières britanniques. / At War and on Strike . Investigations in British Mining Towns (1939-1945)
Based on her doctoral thesis defended in 2018, historian Ariane Mak's book, *At War and on Strike* , challenges the notion that "there were no strikes during the war!" (p. 9).
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Gli scioperi del '43-'44 / The Strikes of '43-'44. Activists and Militants from Anti-Fascism to Liberation
The strikes of 1943-44 were the largest strikes ever seen in Europe, and proved decisive in catalyzing forces against the regime during the most difficult years of the war. This volume is a valuable contribution to the historiography of the Resistance.